While it is understandable that a DoR will defend his players he has to put into focus the bigger picture.

Rather than come up with the bland and wishy-washy proposition that the club will be looking at discipline Qui9ns management should have been far more positive in its response.

The COE should have said on behalf of the club that Quins will not tolerate behaviour of this kind from any player. As a consequence the club will double the band given to Sinkler - and any future offered.

Silly of JK to say what he did about Ward though, particularly given the coverage shows how he got that black eye.

Our discipline in terms of penalties conceded is awful so far, but that's now two instances in 5 games of players getting involved in off the ball foul play, and I think a few times we've been done for backchat, for which there is just no need.

The technical penalties conceded are hugely frustrating, often halting momentum or costing us bonus points, and they need to learn quickly, such as the repeated penalties for not rolling away against Irish. I guess at least these penalties are conceded as [part of playing the game.

The off the ball stuff is just so unnecessary. Surely you can get stuck into the opposition, be physical, don't take a backward step, etc, without pulling off scrum caps

My complain about discipline is it's often so stupid penalties! If it was a try saving penalty or yellow card - then fine! Took one for the team! But when we're not under pressure but within kicking range we'll give a brain dead penalty and lose 3 points! drives me mad! Mad I say!

DOKMy complain about discipline is it's often so stupid penalties! If it was a try saving penalty or yellow card - then fine! Took one for the team! But when we're not under pressure but within kicking range we'll give a brain dead penalty and lose 3 points! drives me mad! Mad I say!

Completely agree. I've moved seats this season and I now have a better view of the numerous penalties that we give away.

1. Club discipline - the behaviour the club does not tolerate - gouging, biting, spear tackles, abusing/assaulting 'sir' or off-field incidents (drunkenness, drugs etc).
2. Technical discipline - breaching general playing rules either deliberately, by accident or poor decision taking.

The latter is down to individuals and the coaches.

With the former, the club needs to take the moral high ground. Doubling the ban may be extreme but the club should be using additional fines or bans to demonstrate clearly what is not tolerated from anyone representing Quins (players or coaches).

JK's handling of the Sinkler/Ward incidents was none to bright but who knows how the club deal with such comments.

It's been clear since the Irish game that the way we are approaching the breakdown is not popular with referees. Our players are getting pinged frequently for not rolling away.

I must admit I mostly can't see why the things we are getting pinged for are so much worse than, say, the way Leicester or Irish were flopping over the breakdown. My best guess is that with the change of rules around what the tackler can do, refs are being much stricter on anyone the wrong side of the breakdown and looking at that before they look at anyone coming from the right side.

But whatever it is, we don't seem to be able to adapt on the fly, and it's happened in every game I've seen so far. I think the wider indiscipline is probably the frustration from that bubbling over; if you feel you're not getting fair treatment from the ref, the temptation to exact rough justice is higher.

I am pretty frustrated myself that we haven't been able to fix this, because it's been brewing since at least last season and it is probably the main thing that is stopping Quins winning matches at the moment. The defence has been reasonably solid and our attack, at least with Smith on the field, has been better than it's been for a long while, but we are giving away far too many penalties, and it's costing us.

I thought clubs were allowed to talk to the refs in the days before a game to understand what his priorities were and what he would be cracking down on. I know Cheika was talking about such meetings during the England tour last summer...

Not happy with the stupid penalty's but also think we get pinged a lot for not rolling away when actually we do seem to be trying to. Maybe not flapping our arms enough or something, but we seem to get pinged on that more than most, it doesn't always seem a level playing field on that. Are we not doing something others are?

Our discipline in terms of penalties conceded is awful so far, but that's now two instances in 5 games of players getting involved in off the ball foul play, and I think a few times we've been done for backchat, for which there is just no need.

The technical penalties conceded are hugely frustrating, often halting momentum or costing us bonus points, and they need to learn quickly, such as the repeated penalties for not rolling away against Irish. I guess at least these penalties are conceded as [part of playing the game.

The off the ball stuff is just so unnecessary. Surely you can get stuck into the opposition, be physical, don't take a backward step, please f scrum caps[/quote]

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net